27 January 2016 – Cinco Días
Data is regularly being published about the rise in the number of house sales, how the fall in property prices is being mitigated, the gradual return of credit to the market and the impact of the overall economic recovery as the driver behind the real estate market overcoming the crisis. Nevertheless, the online portal Pisos.com has gone a step further by cross-checking information about the prices that purchasers are willing to pay and the asking prices being set by vendors; and they are checking the differences between them (…).
In its study, which is based on figures from 2015, the real estate portal notes that the differences between asking prices and offer prices have decreased in line with the improvement in the labour market (as soon as job destruction came to a halt, house sales began their timid recovery) and the relaxation of conditions to access finance.
This alignment of positions has been made possible thanks to the fact that house prices now seem to have bottomed out, at least in the majority of regions, “and buyers’ budgets have increased, thanked to increased savings and the return of credit to the market”, explain sources at Pisos.com.
In this way, during 2015, the average house price in Spain amounted to €138,150, whilst the most sought-after home (by buyers) cost €112,500 on average and had a surface area of 90 m2. The portal understands that the difference between these amounts, i.e. €25,650, represents the difference that currently separates demand and supply, which is equivalent to 23% of the most sought-after price.
Pisos.com has been performing this cross-check of supply and demand since 2009 and in its study, it shows how the relationship has evolved during the crisis and the start of the recovery. In 2009, the difference amounted to 55%, which is explained to a large extent by the sharp decline in the number of house sales; the transactions that did materialise were accounted for with a sizeable discrepancy.
Since then, the positions have moved towards each other to narrow at 20% in 2013. Nevertheless, in 2014, they increased again, to 25% and then last year, that gap moderated slightly to the aforementioned 23%. The evolution varies by region, which is to be expected in the housing market. (…).
Starting prices
Prices in six autonomous regions increased, namely: Andalucía, Aragón, the Balearic Islands, Galicia, Navarra and País Vasco. The highest average asking price is still found in País Vasco, at €232,500. At the other end of the spectrum, citizens in Murcia, Valencia, Castilla-La Mancha and the Canary Islands searched for homes with a average price of €67,500. Navarra is the only autonomous region where the price that buyers are willing to pay exceeded the asking price. The autonomous regions in which asking and offer prices were the closest were: Cantabria (9%), País Vasco (9%) and Cataluña (12%). By contrast, the largest differences were found in Murcia (where the difference still amounts to 39%), Asturias (37%) and La Rioja (36%).
In terms of other variables in the market, such as the number of transactions and the evolution of prices, the General Council of Notaries published its study yesterday, which showed that (house) sales grew by 14.7% YoY in Q3 2015, following their significant growth in the previous quarter (16.8% YoY). Moreover, the notaries highlighted that all of the autonomous regions, with the exception of Navarra, contributed to this result. (…). Meanwhile, prices grew by 2.7% YoY during the same period, just below the rate of growth seen in the previous quarter (3.6%). (…).
Original story: Cinco Días (by Raquel Díaz Guijarro)
Translation: Carmel Drake
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